In inserting a guidewire into a patient during a medical procedure such as angioplasty, it is important that the guidewire follows a correct path. One method for tracking a guidewire is to use X-rays. However, X-rays are ionizing radiation and it is preferable to reduce a patient's exposure to X-rays as much as possible.
U. S. Patent Application 2011/0230758 to Eichler, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for determining the position of the tip of a medical catheter within the body of a patient. The method includes inserting a mapping position system catheter into a tubular organ, and inserting a medical catheter into the organ.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,632,468 to Glossop et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for assisting/performing image-guided transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) procedures in a portion of an anatomy of a patient. The system includes a guide needle portion having a hollow tube with a bend toward its distal tip, and a puncture needle portion that includes at least one position indicating element at its tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,043,351 to Yon et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for performing a therapy for angioplasty. The disclosure refers to a balloon tipped catheter, and describes how mapping electrodes may be employed at the distal end of a warm balloon.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,317,819 to Janes, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for three-dimensional imaging. The disclosure refers to viewing a specific portion of a three-dimensional image exposure, e.g., for viewing an angioplasty device moving through a vein or artery.
U.S. Patent Application 2006/0173298 to Tucker, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes methods for using a catheter to generate a geographic map of a venous structure of the heart and to generate an electrical map of the electrical conduction patterns of the heart for locating an aberrant electrical conduction pattern.
U.S. Patent Application 2014/0081204 to Cohen et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a remotely controlled catheter insertion system which may include a mapping procedure and an angioplasty procedure.
Documents incorporated by reference in the present patent application are to be considered an integral part of the application except that, to the extent that any terms are defined in these incorporated documents in a manner that conflicts with definitions made explicitly or implicitly in the present specification, only the definitions in the present specification should be considered.